The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has taken the highly unusual step of dismissing the prosecutors who convicted Rebecca Grossman of double murder, outraging the parents of the two young children she killed in a crosswalk in Westlake Village.
Lawyer Dist. George Gascón's office replaced prosecutors Jamie Castro, Ryan Gould and his supervisor, Garrett Dameron, after they began preparing a motion to remove Grossman's new attorney, James Spertus, due to a conflict of interest, according to an email email from one of the prosecutors to his boss.
Spertus also represents the assistant. Lawyer Dist. Diana Terán, a top aide to Gascón, was recently charged with 11 felonies in connection with the illegal use of confidential sheriff's records. Spertus has denied any wrongdoing on Terán's part.
The dismissal of prosecutors comes at a potentially vital time in the Grossman case, as Spertus prepares a motion for a new trial, which has delayed sentencing for the wealthy co-founder of the Grossman Burn Center until at least next month.
Grossman has been awaiting sentencing since his Feb. 23 conviction for second-degree murder in the deaths of brothers Mark and Jacob Iskander, ages 11 and 8, who were struck and killed in a crosswalk as Grossman sped down a street. Westlake Village residential in September 2020. .
The children's mother, Nancy Iskander, who testified at trial that she lost sight of her children when they crossed the marked road in front of her and two all-terrain vehicles speeding through the intersection, expressed outrage at the decision to remove the children. prosecutors and questioned why he was becoming a victim again.
“This is truly shocking and disappointing,” Iskander said in a Mother's Day interview.
Dameron echoed that sentiment in an email to Chief Deputy District Attorney Joseph Iniguez.
“In my nearly 24 years in office, this decision is shocking and unprecedented. “I also believe it is contrary to professional ethics and frustrates our clear duty of candor to the court,” Dameron wrote. “At a minimum, this extraordinary decision jeopardizes the successful conclusion of the case and the impartial administration of justice.”
During Grossman's six-week murder trial, Terán was in constant supervisory contact with the prosecution. Last month, after Terán was charged, Gould and Castro notified the judge about the conflict because Spertus represents both Grossman and Terán.
Iskander said the decision “took me back a few steps in my healing process.” He said that instead of seeking to remove the embattled defense attorney, the district attorney's office is now taking away the people who brought justice to his family.
“They are punishing me for something I had nothing to do with. They choose to punish the victim,” she said. “They have a motion for a new trial. We have things that only Ryan, who knows the case and the defendant so well, can handle.
“We were eager to close the case. The sentence was soon,” he continued. “For me, I suddenly had to meet with another prosecutor and work with him. “They don’t know my family or the children.”
Mark Iskander, 11, and his brother Jacob Iskander, 8, were killed by Rebecca Grossman.
(Courtesy of the Iskander family)
Iskander said he asked the district attorney's office to reverse its decision.
As Grossman's lead prosecutor, Terán was involved in the day-to-day strategy of the trial, according to internal district attorney communications reviewed by The Times.
Since the trial ended, Terán has been charged with a serious crime. On April 24, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta charged her with 11 felonies related to downloading records in 2018 while she worked at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Terán “impermissibly used” those records after joining Gascón’s office, Bonta alleged.
Spertus, who took over Grossman's case after his conviction, told the Daily Journal that there was no conflict in his representation of both Grossman and Terán because he is adverse to the prosecution.
Dameron, however, said yes. He wrote in his email to Iniguez that the prosecutors' dismissal came after a proposed motion to remove Spertus from the case, arguing that Grossman cannot waive any conflict.
Spertus' motion for a new trial could contain an allegation of malicious prosecution — something alleged by Grossman's former defense attorney, Tony Buzbee — and that would implicate Teran's decisions and place Spertus in direct conflict with his client, Dameron said.
He said prosecutors were given a “very vague explanation” that “had to be bricked over because Diana Terán was our supervisor during a period of the prosecution,” but said the conflict is actually with Spertus “who represents these two defendants.”
According to Dameron's email, prosecutors “learned from a witness who had critical information about Grossman's continued efforts to obstruct justice from inside the county jail” shortly after Spertus became his attorney on the 22nd. of March.
According to recorded jailhouse phone calls, prosecutors also knew that Grossman was trying to get her husband and daughter to talk to trial witnesses to change their testimony. The jailhouse witness had important information to “preserve the integrity of our verdict and the safety of our witnesses,” Dameron wrote.
“As instructed, I sent a request to interview the witness to Terán,” Dameron wrote. “To our surprise, Terán denied our request to conduct this interview. “I repeatedly asked for an explanation and they didn't give it to me.”
Rebecca Grossman, second from left, with her husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, left, and their daughter Alexis.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Terán has long been represented by the Spertus law firm. According to a 2019 deposition, she was represented by Spertus' colleague Samuel Josephs during a civil case involving allegations about confidential sheriff's records that ultimately led to last month's criminal charges.
Spertus has insisted that Terán is innocent and said the documents in question were obtained through public court records or involved findings of dishonesty against sheriff's deputies, which would be public record under Senate Bill 1421, the landmark California police transparency law.
In his email, Dameron argued that if Grossman's prosecutors need to be removed because they worked with Terán, then all prosecutors who have worked with public corruption and police prosecution would also have to be replaced, since Terán also oversees those cases.
“This decision gives the impression that there is greater concern about protecting other collateral actors (such as the administration and Diana Terán) than about seeing that justice is done and that the interests of the family of Jacob and Mark Iskander (both of them) are protected. little ones). killed by Grossman) are safeguarded,” Dameron wrote in the email, which concluded by asking Íñiguez to reconsider the “terrible decision.”
The move is the latest controversy in the Grossman case. In March, Gould and Castro sought to have his prison privileges revoked after a series of recorded phone calls from the Twin Towers jail to his family ordered them to reveal evidence that had been sealed during his double murder trial and that They will locate witnesses to obtain them. say that his testimony was directed.
But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino refused to move Grossman to a part of the jail system where his mail is checked and where he would have no access to phones or visitors except his attorneys, saying the punishment it was not necessary.
In denying the motions, Brandolino warned Grossman's new defense attorneys, led by Spertus, that in the future, any disclosure of evidence under seal would result in financial penalties for them and that he would report them to the State Bar.
Grossman's attorneys also successfully asked the judge to delay his sentencing, which had been scheduled for April, until at least June so that Spertus could review the voluminous court file while preparing for a motion for a new trial. Grossman faces a sentence of 34 years to life in prison.
